Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union of the American States

Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Delaware

Selected, Arranged, and Indexed by Charles C. Tansill

We the Deputies of the People of the Delaware State, in Convention met, having taken into our serious consideration the Fœderal Constitution proposed and agreed upon by the Deputies of the United States in a General Convention held at the City of Philadelphia on the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, Have approved, assented to, ratified, and confirmed, and by these Presents, Do, in virtue of the Power and Authority to us given for that purpose, for and in behalf of ourselves and our Constituents, fully, freely, and entirely approve of, assent to, ratify, and confirm the said Constitution.

Done in Convention at Dover this seventh day of December in the year aforesaid, and in the year of the Independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In Testimony whereof we have hereunto subscribed our Names—

Sussex County Kent County New Castle County
JOHN INGRAM NICHOLAS RIDGELEY JAs LATIMER, President
JOHN JONES RICHARD SMITH JAMES BLACK
WILLIAM MOORE GEORGE TRUITT JNo JAMES
WILLIAM HALL RICHARD BASSETT GUNNING BEDFORD Senr.
THOMAS LAWS JAMES SYKES KENSEY JOHNS
ISAAC COOPER ALLEN McLANE THOMAS WATSON
WOODMAN STORKLY DANIEL CUMMINS Senr. SOLOMON MAXWELL
JOHN LAWS JOSEPH BARKER NICHOLAS WAY
THOMAS EVANS EDWARD WHITE THOMAS DUFF
ISRAEL HOLLAND GEORGE MANLOVE GUNNG BEDFORD Junr.

To all whom these Presents shall come Greeting, I Thomas Collins President of the Delaware State do hereby certify, that the above instrument of writing is a true copy of the original ratification of the Fœderal Constitution by the Convention of the Delaware State, which original ratification is now in my possession. In Testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the Delaware State to be hereunto an’exed.
[SEAL.]

THOS COLLINS


Reprinted from Documentary History of the Constitution, Vol. II (1894), pp. 25, 26.

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